Training with sensei Leo Tamaki

Hello once again. By the tittle of the post it's obvious enough that I'm not here to show another drawing of mine or something to do with that matter. Although I do feel a bit better day by day ! But while I'm like this and can't draw, I didn't want the blog to stay on stand by mode. So I'm writing about the 3-day-training with sensei Leo Tamaki organized by the A.A.A., or Aikido Association of the Azores (Associação de Aikido dos Açores in portuguese). 

WARNING: this might be a long post ! And what I'm about to write is my opinion and my vision of the training. How it was for ME. Please don't expect a great writing, it's a pretty simple thing and pretty summarized. I will not give every single detail because I'd take soooo long and you probably wouldn't read it.

First of all, I'd like to say how amazing it was to me. I admire sensei Leo Tamaki since I first heard of him, last year. It was his first visit to our island (S. Miguel) and we were invited by the A.A.A. to come by. I searched about him and saw videos on Youtube and was amazed. His technique is simply incredible to watch and I love how he does it all so smoothly. But unfortunately I was not able to go last year. When I heard he was coming back this year, and that we were invited by the A.A.A. once again, I knew I couldn't miss it. And thank god I didn't !

A little information on sensei Leo Tamaki

Sensei Tamaki after the practice.

Sensei Leo Tamaki was born in 1974. His father is japanese. Issei Tamaki, who's also into Aikido, is hiss brother. Sensei Leo has practiced Kung-fu, and Full Contact Karate. 

At the age of 21, he started training Aikido. One of his first teachers in Paris was Jacques Bardet. Later, during an extended visit to Japan, Sensei Tamaki practiced Kyokushinkaï, which is a hard style karate, but never abandoning Aikido.

Currently, Sensei Tamaki is 4th Dan in Aikikai.

(If any of this information is wrong, please feel free to let me know and I'll correct it. :) )

Credits for the bio: http://www.ai-ki-do.fr/sensei-aikido/leo-tamaki.php (I only translated the bio, the credits go to this site)

The training with sensei Leo Tamaki

It was my frist time training with sensei Leo Tamaki. And as I said before, it was an amazing experience and I hope that if he comes back next year, I'll be there.

Anyways. We were to work on our sensitivity. There were various exercises. For example, in one of the exercises, both the uke and the nage were in suwari waza. The nage stood with eyes closed, while the uke had a tanto (wooden knife) in hand and attacked the nage slowly, but with the intention to attack him. The nage has to feel the attack coming and avoid being "cut". 

There was an exercise where we had to be completely relaxed, lying with our backs against the floor. We had to slowly move our legs up, and eventually do the back roll ukemi without contracting or doing any effort with our belly. We had a partner wiht his hand place lightly in our belly while we did it, so in case we contracted the belly, they'd feel it and let us know, and we had to start it all over. I'm not going to describe all the exercises here though, that'll take forever. And I'm not a great writer lolol.

We also worked on not using strenght while doing a technique. To do so, we had to be perfectly relaxed, do the technique with no strenght, but the intention had to be there in order to work. We had to be able to feel the uke's energy and body too, we had to be sensitive.

Me with Sensei Tamaki.

On the picture above sensei Leo Tamaki is helping me to understand the technique. The thing is, once he works with you and shows you how it's done, it's so much easier. Once he corrected what I was doing wrong I was able to do it right. I want to explain, but it only helps if you feel it. You feel the smoothless with which he does the technique, but still, you'll fall.

And I realized that the techniques are done with no effort. There's no strenght aplied. It can be done gently, and be 100% effective. It's so amazing. You can be calm and completely relaxed, and with the right attitude and if the intention is there, you destabilize the person without sacrificing your own balance and bam, it works.

Sensei helping me to understand a technique.

The training with sensei Leo Tamaki made me learn so much. Really, for me it was unique. I admired and respected him before, but now I do it even more. It was such a great experience that has really enlightened me and helped me, and I have no words to describe it. I feel really proud and happy that I was able to meet him.

After practice, me and Sensei Leo Tamaki.

And of course, I had to take a picture with sensei Leo, ahah. He was  kind enought to take a picture with me, so thank you so much, sensei Leo ! 

I have one where I am both with sensei Leo Tamaki and with sensei Mário who belongs to the A.A.A. that I would love to post, because it's thanks to sensei Mário that I have the picture and that I was able to go to the training, but I don't want to do it without his permission. My dad will go to his dojo tomorrow, I'll tell him to ask him if I can post it here, and if I can, I gladly will. 
EDITED: Sensei Mário gave me the permission to post the picture where I'm both with him and with sensei Leo Tamaki. Thank you !

Sensei Tamaki, me and Sensei Mário.

I want to thank A.A.A. for the amazing experience, and obviously, thank sensei Leo Tamaki for coming too ! :)

Lastly, enjoy this video (it's NOT from our training with sensei Leo and is NOT mine) from sensei Leo's demonstration in The NAMT from 2008. Worth the watch ! ;)

P.S. - these photos all belong to me, they were taken during and after the training, by my father. Also, bear with me. I'm not a great writer and this, as I said before, is how I saw the training. I might have missed something, and if I did and remember, I'll edit it. And this is a really really summarized version of the training, so... Thanks for reading !